Jim Jordan has failed badly in a third attempt to be named speaker of the US House of Representatives, rejected by even more Republicans from the conservative mainstream who warned the ally of Donald Trump that no threats or promises could win their support.
The Republicans have no realistic or workable plan to unite their fractured majority, elect a new speaker and return to the work of Congress that has been languishing since hardliners ousted Kevin McCarthy at the start of the month.
In all, Mr Jordan lost 25 Republican colleagues, leaving him far from the majority needed.
Before the vote, Mr Jordan showed no sign of stepping aside, insisting at a Capitol press conference: “The American people are hungry for change.”
Drawing on his Ohio roots, Jordan, who is popular with the Republicans’ right-flank activist base of voters, positioned his long-shot campaign alongside the history of American innovators including the Wright brothers, urging his colleagues to elect him to the speakership.
Mr McCarthy himself rose in the chamber to nominate Mr Jordan, portraying him as a skilled legislator who reaches for compromise, drawing laughter from the Democratic side of the aisle.
Mr McCarthy added: “He is straightforward, honest and reliable.”
Democrats nominated House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, with representative Katherine Clark calling Mr Jordan – who refused to certify the 2020 election – “a threat to democracy”.
“We need a speaker worthy of wielding the gavel,” she said.
But after two failed votes, Mr Jordan’s third attempt at the gavel did not end any better — in large part because more centrist Republicans revolted over the nominee and the hardball tactics being used to win their votes. They have been bombarded with harassing phone calls and even reported death threats.
Friday’s vote was 194 for Mr Jordan, his lowest tally yet, and 210 for Mr Jeffries, with two absences on each side.
For more than two weeks the stalemate has shut down the House, leaving a seat of American democracy severely hobbled at a time of challenges at home and abroad. The House Republican majority appears to have no idea how to end the political turmoil and get back to work.
With Republicans in majority control of the House, 221-212, any candidate can lose only a few detractors. It appears there is no Republican at present who can win a clear majority, 217 votes, to become speaker.
“He doesn’t have the votes to be speaker,” Republican Carlos Gimenez said after a late Thursday meeting when Mr Jordan sought to hear detractors out and shore up support.
The holdouts want “nothing” from Mr Jordan, Mr Gimenez said, adding that some of the legislators in the meeting simply called on him to drop out of the race.
Next steps are uncertain as angry, frustrated Republicans predict the House could essentially stay closed for the foreseeable future — perhaps until the mid-November deadline for Congress to approve funding or risk a federal government shutdown.
“We’re trying to figure out if there’s a way we can get back with a Republican-only solution,” said veteran legislator Tom Cole.
“That’s what normal majorities do. What this majority has done is prove it’s not a normal majority.”
What was clear was that Mr Jordan was refusing to step aside, appearing determined to wait out his foes even as his path to become speaker was all but collapsing.
Representative Matt Gaetz, a chief architect of Mr McCarthy’s removal, said after Friday’s vote that he and other Jordan supporters would be willing to be censured or otherwise punished by their Republican colleagues if that was what it took to win votes for Mr Jordan.
Many view Mr Jordan, a founding member of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, as too extreme for a central seat of US power, second in line to the presidency.
“Who normalised Jim Jordan?” asked Mr Jeffries, reiterating that his party was “ready, willing and able” to partner with more traditional Republicans on a path to reopen the House.
“One thing I cannot stomach or support is a bully,” said a statement from Mariannette Miller-Meeks, who voted against Mr Jordan on the second ballot and said she received “credible death threats”.
To win over Republican colleagues, Mr Jordan had relied on backing from Mr Trump, the party’s front-runner in the 2024 election, and groups pressuring rank-and-file legislators for the vote, but they were not enough and in fact backfired on some.
Mr Jordan has been a top Trump ally, particularly during the January 6 Capitol attack by the former president’s backers who were trying to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Joe Biden. Days later, Mr Trump awarded Mr Jordan a Medal of Freedom.
